Alisa A. Looney

Artist's Statement

  I shape and fabricate metal into open, energetic human form, representing movement and the expression of life.

The flow of this life energy is depicted in my work using curving forms with spiraling cut-outs, creating a dynamic movement within the human body. Carefully designed shapes of metal and the open spaces between them, play against each other to create the form, with stylized details of muscles, spine, ribs and pelvis. Pieces are cut and shaped from sheets of steel, bronze or stainless. Intersecting planes are welded and built from the center out. The open shapes create a lightness in the metal, allowing the form to feel as if it is moving through space freely, unbounded.

I draw from years of experimental dance and movement, the place where I find my greatest moments of free expression. The spiraling motion reflects the flow of water around rocks and along the banks of the river where I grew up. I see the river as metaphor for the energy I feel in my body, while dancing, flowing from the center, out my limbs. Observing dance, I capture shapes between movements, and spaces between bodies, in gesture drawings and paintings. I transform these images into 3 dimensional designs, which are first made of paper board, then transferred to metal in the fabrication process. I enjoy working with the pliability and strength of metal, cutting and shaping it into permanent forms that will last through time. I work in many sizes, from table top pieces, to life size and larger, creating public sculptures that can be viewed by people from all walks of life. It is my hope to inspire others to be fully self-expressed in their lives.

Artist Bio

  Alisa Looney is a sculptor, dancer, painter and designer. Alisa received her BFA from Boise State University in 1983. She has been a professional designer and fine artist since 1981 and presently owns Vision Design in Portland, OR. At the age of four, Alisa began drawing and building with clay and sand on the banks of the Spokane River, in Northern Idaho. She fell in love with metal arts as a silver smith in her early years and began welding in 1998. With her public sculptures, Alisa has won People’s Choice Purchase Awards in Lake Oswego Arts Downtown in 2006, and in Cannon Beach Sculpture Without Walls in 2009. She is a member of the Pacific NW Sculptors and leads a group in RADIX, Circle of Women in the Arts. Alisa resides in Portland, OR, with her husband, artist Wade Womack and their son Finn.